Zombie materials | Nature Materials

Zombie materials | Nature Materials

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Access through your institution Buy or subscribe Haptic interfaces have existed for many years, but touch is still challenging to emulate. There is still plenty to be understood about how


the mind develops a tactile sense of materials — their softness, compliance, texture and so forth — from the delicate feedback between skin and brain. It’s not clear, for example, what the


relevant coordinates are for tactile space: how we categorize such sensual characteristics. A new study of haptic sensation in virtual reality (VR) supplies a demonstration of how touch is


acutely sensitive to other sensory cues, especially vision. Berger et al. tested users of a VR system that generates an illusion of material objects from small vibrations delivered to


handheld controllers in each hand1. When the vibrations are suitably synchronized, the user experiences the sense of there being a single, material source located in the empty space between


the hands. In the experiments this source could be rendered visually in the VR headset as a vibrating white marble. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution


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FAQs * Contact customer support REFERENCES * Berger, C. C., Gonzalez-Franco, M., Ofek, E. & Hinckley, K. _Sci. Robot._ 3, eaar7010 (2018). Article  Google Scholar  * Murphy, R. R. _Sci.


Robot._ 3, eeat8447 (2018). Article  Google Scholar  Download references AUTHOR INFORMATION AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Nature Materials https://www.nature.com/naturematerials Philip Ball


Authors * Philip Ball View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Correspondence to Philip Ball. RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints


and permissions ABOUT THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE Ball, P. Zombie materials. _Nature Mater_ 17, 479 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0095-4 Download citation * Published: 23


May 2018 * Issue Date: June 2018 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-018-0095-4 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Get shareable


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